Eil Þdr 3^III

Gǫrr varð í fǫr fyrri
farmr meinsvarra arma
sóknar hapts með svipti
sagna galdrs an Rǫgnir.
Þylk granstrauma Grímnis;
gall- manntælendr halla
-ópnis ilja gaupnum
Endils um Mó spenndu.

{{Farmr arma} {meinsvarra}} varð fyrri gǫrr í fǫr með {svipti sagna} an {Rǫgnir {galdrs {hapts sóknar}}}. Þylk {granstrauma Grímnis}; {mann{tælendr {halla gallópnis}}} spenndu gaupnum ilja um {Mó Endils}.

{{The cargo of the arms} [LOVER] {of the harm-woman}} [= Angrboða > = Loki] was ready for the journey with {the mover of troops} [LEADER = Þórr] earlier than {the Rǫgnir <= Óðinn> {of the incantation {of the god of battle}}} [= Óðinn > BATTLE > WARRIOR = Þjálfi]. I recite {the lip-streams of Grímnir <= Óðinn>} [POEM]; {the destroyers {of the man {of the halls of the shrill-crier <eagle>}}} [(lit. ‘man-destroyers of the halls of the shrill-crier’) MOUNTAINS > GIANT > = Þórr and his companion] clasped {the Mór <horse> of Endill <sea-king>} [SHIP] with the palms of their foot-soles.

Mss: R(24v), Tˣ(25r-v), W(53) (SnE)

Readings: [2] farmr: so Tˣ, W, farms R;    ‑svarra: ‑svarans all    [3] hapts: so Tˣ, W, ‘hafsz’ R    [4] Rǫgnir: so Tˣ, W, ‘tꜹgnir’ R    [5] gran‑: so W, grunn‑ R, gram‑ Tˣ    [6] ‑tælendr: ‑tælir Tˣ, W;    halla: ‘hall(ar)’(?) W    [7] ópnis: opins Tˣ, ‘apnís’ W;    gaupnum: ‘gop[…]’ W    [8] um: á all

Editions: Skj AI, 148-9, Skj BI, 140, Skald I, 77, NN §§1080, 2106; SnE 1848-87, I, 292-3, III, 25-6, SnE 1931, 108, SnE 1998, I, 26.

Context: See Context to st. 1.

Notes: [All]: According to the interpretation given here, Loki seems to have been prepared to journey into the giant’s world before Þjálfi was ready (see Introduction above). — [1] varð fyrri gǫrr í fǫr ‘was ready for the journey … earlier’: Gǫrr cannot be separated from varð, since a break in the syntax at this point is impossible for metrical reasons (Gade 1995a, 85). This eliminates every suggestion that gǫrr could go with one of the other words in the helmingr: gǫrr galdrs ‘ready for magic’ (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 7); gǫrr meinsvárans ‘ready to bear false witness’ (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 378; Skj B; Guðmundur Finnbogason 1924, 174); gǫrr sóknar ‘ready to do battle’ (Reichardt 1948, 341). — [2] farmr arma meinsvarra ‘the cargo of the arms [LOVER] of the harm-woman [= Angrboða > = Loki]’: This kenning must be the sentence’s subject. Its base-word, ‘lover’, is expressed by another kenning, ‘cargo of the arms’. Similar to this are farmr arma Gunnlaðar ‘cargo of the arms [LOVER] of Gunnlǫð <giantess> [= Óðinn]’ Steinþ Frag 1/2 and farmr arma Sigvinjar ‘cargo of the arms [LOVER] of Sigyn <goddess> [= Loki]’ Þjóð Haustl 7/2. These examples show that determinants in this type of kenning must be the name of a female being. This edn follows Kock’s (NN §2106) suggestion that meinsvarans (so all mss) should instead read meinsvarrans ‘of the harm-woman’, from mein n. ‘harm’ and the weak m. noun svarri ‘woman’. This woman must be the giantess Angrboða, with whom Loki begot the three monsters that threaten the world (Fenrisúlfr, Miðgarðsormr and Hel; Gylf, SnE 2005, 27). This kenning fits very well here, because Loki is also the source of the evil awaiting Þórr and Þjálfi (see st. 1). That Loki’s advice is based on his incautiousness in venturing into giantland and being forced to bring Þórr to Geirrøðr without his weapons, is only related by Snorri (SnE 1998, I, 24) and has to be left out of consideration here. The only problem is that all mss have ‘meinsvarans’, i.e. the word contains the def. art. ‑ns which Kock (ibid.) assumes was a later insertion. This edn therefore normalises to meinsvarra in keeping with editorial practice. Other eds have sought to supplement farmr arma differently: farmr arma hapts meinsvarans ‘cargo of the arms of the god of false witness [= Geirrøðr > = Gjálp and Greip]’ (Sveinbjörn Egilsson 1851, 15); farmr arma hapts galdrs ‘cargo of the arms of the deity of magic [= Sigyn > = Loki]’ (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 378; Skj B); farmr arma hapts sóknar ‘cargo of the arms of the deity of battle [= Sigyn > = Loki]’ (Guðmundur Finnbogason 1924, 174); farmr arma Meinsvárangs ‘cargo of the arms of Meinsvárangr <giant> [GIANTESS]’ (Reichardt 1948, 340; Davidson 1983, 575); farmr arma hapts sóknar meinsvárans ‘cargo of the arms of the barrier to the trial for bearing false witness [= Syn > = Þórr]’ (Kiil 1956, 100-1). Kock (NN §445) interprets this last kenning as ‘cargo of the arms of the deity of revenge for bearing false witness’ [= Vôr > = Loki]. All of these proposals fall short because they either contain arbitrary syntactic constructions or require ad hoc assumptions about mythology. — [3-4] svipti sagna ‘the mover of troops [LEADER = Þórr]’: Here, as so often in this poem, a man-kenning is used to refer to the god Þórr (see Introduction above). Cf. hrœrir sagna ‘the leader of the troops [= Loki]’ Þjóð Haustl 9/1. — [3, 4] Rǫgnir galdrs hapts sóknar ‘the Rǫgnir <= Óðinn> of the incantation of the god of battle [= Óðinn > BATTLE > WARRIOR = Þjálfi]’: This warrior-kenning is formed according to the pattern ‘god of battle’, and it expresses ‘battle’ periphrastically as ‘incantation of Óðinn’. For ‘incantation’ as the base-word in battle-kennings, see Meissner 176-7. Almost all eds agree that Rǫgnir must be the base-word of a kenning for Þjálfi, but they construe the kenning with different determinants. Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 378; Skj B) opts for Rǫgnir sóknar ‘Rǫgnir of battle’; Kock (NN §445) proposes the Óðinn-kenning Rǫgnir galdrs ‘Rǫgnir of magic’, which is rejected by Reichardt (1948, 339) on the grounds that Óðinn is out of the question as a companion of Þórr. Reichardt (1948, 339-41) therefore interprets the same kenning as a periphrasis for Loki, much in the same way as Kiil (1956, 101), who expands this supposed Loki-kenning to rǫgnir sagna galdrs ‘leader of the troops of magic’. In the extant Old Norse mythology, there are no connections between Loki and magic incantations, however. — [5] granstrauma Grímnis ‘the lip-streams of Grímnir <= Óðinn> [POEM]’: This kenning for ‘poem’ refers to the myth of the mead of poetry, and in particular, to Óðinn, who spews the stolen mead into the waiting vats (SnE 1998, I, 5). With its two-part determinant, in which ‘lip-’ is a superfluous kenning component, it corresponds to the kenning type ‘liquid of the breast of Óðinn’. — [6-7] manntælendr halla gallópnis ‘the destroyers of the man of the halls of the shrill-crier <eagle> [(lit. ‘man-destroyers of the halls of the shrill-crier’) MOUNTAINS > GIANT > = Þórr and his companion]’: Tmesis on gallópnir is unavoidable here, and it has been adopted by all previous eds. Gallópnir is a heiti for ‘eagle’ (see Þul Ara 1/1). The halls of the eagle, i.e. the location where it can be found, are the mountains, and the men of the mountains are giants. Þórr and his follower (Þjálfi) are then called ‘fighters of giants’. All mss clearly give mann- ‘man-’ here, which makes it impossible to incorporate Endils from the last line into this kenning, as Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 378, followed by Skj and SnE 1998) does. He makes Endils the base-word of a giant-kenning, Endils halla gallópnis ‘of the Endill of the halls of the shrill-crier’, which in turn functions as the determinant in a giant-kenning with an emended mantælendr lit. ‘girl-destroyer’ as the base-word (rejected by Kock in NN §1080). — [7-8] spenndu gaupnum ilja um Mó Endils ‘clasped the Mór <horse> of Endill <sea-king> [SHIP] with the palms of their foot-soles’: Setting foot aboard a ship is represented here by a metaphor, spenna gaupnum ‘clasp with the palms’, the interpretation of which is determined by ilja ‘of the foot-soles’ (a corrected metaphor). Gaupnum ilja ‘with the palms of their foot-soles’ is not a kenning, because it has no referent. The emendation of the prep. á (so all mss) to um is necessary here because the verb spenna in the sense ‘clasp’ is construed with the prep. um ‘around’ and not with á ‘on, onto, at’ (see Fritzner: I. spenna). — [8] Mó Endils ‘the Mór <horse> of Endill <sea-king> [SHIP]’: This edn deviates (with Kock NN §1080; Genzmer 1928, 310; Kiil 1956, 102) from other eds (Finnur Jónsson 1900b, 378; Skj B; Reichardt 1948, 343) in making Endill the determinant of the horse-heiti Mór. For Mór as a horse-name, cf. Þul Hesta 3/8, Anon Þorgþ I 1/7 and Anon Kálfv 2/3. The second part of the stanza is then not about climbing mountains or wading through a river, but about Þórr and his companion boarding a ship (or wading through the sea, see below). This corresponds to the prose narratives of this myth (see Introduction above) according to which giants are approached by sea (cf. Kiil 1956, 103). On his way to Jǫtunheimar visiting Útgarðaloki, Þórr crosses a deep sea (Gylf, SnE 2005, 37), and comparable stories about underworld journeys to Geirrøðr, such as those of Thorkillus (Saxo 2005, I, 8, 14, 1-20, pp. 560-73) and Þorsteinn bæjarmagn (FSGJ IV, 329), also lead across the sea. The kenning ‘Scots of Gandvík’ in st. 2/6 above fits this pattern as well. It locates the giants, who are the target of this journey, near the White Sea, or north of it, as on the Skálholt map (see Note to st. 2/6). Numerous eds have interpreted mó as ‘land’. Sveinbjörn Egilsson (1851, 24) combines it with Endils to form a kenning for ‘mountain’ (‘land of the giant’). Endill is recorded exclusively as the name of a sea-king, however, and never as a giant-name; hence the kenning mó Endils can only mean ‘sea’ and not ‘mountain’. Kock (NN §1080) takes the kenning to mean ‘stretch of water’, i.e. the river that Þórr and his companion must wade across (so also Genzmer 1928, 310). Names of sea-kings, however, are never determinants in river-kennings (Meissner 99-100). If one wanted to keep mó Endils as a sea-kenning, the rest of the helmingr, namely spenndu gaupnum ilja ‘they clasped with the palms of their foot-soles’, would imply that Þórr and his companion would have walked on or perhaps waded through the sea. There are several instances where Þórr wades through water; most comparable is perhaps the end of the fishing contest in Hym st. 27 and in Gylf (SnE 2005, 45). Finnur Jónsson (1900b, 378; Skj B, followed by Reichardt 1948, 343 and Davidson 1983, 574, 578) therefore avoids a kenning, translating mó simply as ‘earth, heath’. He combines Endils and halla gallópnis ‘halls of the shrill-crier [MOUNTAINS]’ into a giant-kenning, and this in turn with mantælendr (emended from manntælendr) into a kenning for Þórr and his companions (on this see Note to ll. 6-7 above). In light of all these difficulties, the present edn interprets mó as the horse-name Mór, combined with Endils to form a ship-kenning.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
6. Meissner = Meissner, Rudolf. 1921. Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik. Rheinische Beiträge und Hülfsbücher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1. Bonn and Leipzig: Schroeder. Rpt. 1984. Hildesheim etc.: Olms.
7. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
8. Fritzner = Fritzner, Johan. 1883-96. Ordbog over det gamle norske sprog. 3 vols. Kristiania (Oslo): Den norske forlagsforening. 4th edn. Rpt. 1973. Oslo etc.: Universitetsforlaget.
9. SnE 1931 = Snorri Sturluson. 1931. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Ed. Finnur Jónsson. Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
10. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
11. Davidson, Daphne L. 1983. ‘Earl Hákon and his Poets’. D. Phil. thesis. Oxford.
12. FSGJ = Guðni Jónsson, ed. 1954. Fornaldar sögur norðurlanda. 4 vols. [Reykjavík]: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan.
13. Saxo 2005 = Friis-Jensen, Karsten, ed. 2005. Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum / Danmarkshistorien. Trans. Peter Zeeberg. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Det danske sprog- og litteraturselskab & Gads forlag.
14. SnE 2005 = Snorri Sturluson. 2005. Edda: Prologue and Gylfaginning. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2nd edn. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
15. Finnur Jónsson. 1900b. ‘Þórsdrápa Eilífs Goðrúnarsonar’. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske videnskabernes selskabs forhandlinger 1900, 369-410.
16. Kiil, Vilhelm. 1956. ‘Eilífr Goðrúnarson’s Þórsdrápa’. ANF 71, 89-167.
17. Reichardt, Konstantin. 1948. ‘Die Thórsdrápa des Eilífr Goðrúnarson: Textinterpretation’. PMLA 63, 329-91.
18. Sveinbjörn Egilsson. 1851. Tvö brot af Haustlaung og Þórsdrápa. Reykjavík: Prentað á kostnað skólasjóðsins.
19. Genzmer, Felix. 1928a. ‘Zwei angebliche Fälle von Wortspaltung’. ANF 44, 305-11.
20. Guðmundur Finnbogason. 1924. ‘Um Þórsdrápu. Nokkrar athugasemdir’. Skírnir, 172-81.
21. Internal references
22. (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=113> (accessed 2 May 2024)
23. Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Kálfsvísa 2’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 666.
24. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Hesta heiti 3’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 937.
25. Elena Gurevich (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Þulur, Ara heiti 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 950.
26. Not published: do not cite ()
27. R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2017, ‘Steinþórr, Fragment 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 390.
28. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 7’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 441.
29. Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.) 2017, ‘Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, Haustlǫng 9’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 444.